Sweden: Employer Unlawfully Disfavoured Employee for Reasons Relating to Parental Leave
Employer unlawfully disfavoured employee for reasons relating to parental leave by not offering an extended period of probationary employment.
An employee began his employment with a probationary period of six months, during which he was absent for most of the period due to parental leave. As such, the employer was unable to assess the employee’s performance and the employer informed him that his employment would terminate by the end of the probationary period.
The employee, represented by the Equality Ombudsman, claimed that the termination was in violation of the Parental Leave Act as he had been unlawfully disfavoured for reasons relating to his parental leave. The Equality Ombudsman claimed that the employer should have offered an extended probationary period to allow an assessment of the employee’s performance instead of terminating the employment.
The Labour Court declared that the employee had been disfavoured and that such disfavour was lawful only insofar as it was a necessary consequence of the parental leave. While probationary employment may not, as a general rule, apply for a period of more than six months, the Court concluded that it would have been possible for the employer and employee to agree upon an extended probationary period since the employee had been absent during most of the probationary employment. As such, termination had not been a necessary consequence of the parental leave, since the employer could have prevented the employee from being disfavoured by offering an extended probationary period. Thus, the Court found that the employer was liable to pay the employee damages amounting to SEK 250,000, due to unlawful disfavour relating to parental leave.
CEDERQUIST attorneys are available to assist you with these and other workplace issues. For more information, visit https://www.cederquist.com/. For more information on these articles or any other issues involving labour and employment matters in Sweden, please contact Robert Stromberg at robert.stromberg@cederquist.se.
